To All My Fellow Citizens of the United States. Before You Go To The Polls To Vote From This Point Forward Please Think About The Following
There are a lot of things we can improve on however we all love Our Freedoms and Our Rights. In order to protect all of them we have to hold ourselves accountable and responsible. It’s up to all of us to fact check the nominees before voting them into office.
Most of us have cellphones, computers or IPads to
vet the nominees. Almost every one who runs for public office has a Wikipedia page that I have found to be mostly accurate by fact checking against other reputable sources. I also find some Substacks to be credible sources of accurate information such as Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Steve Schmidt (a Former Republican), who founded the Lincoln Project podcast, Steady, Dan Rather and Elliot Kirshner’s Substack, to name a few. I also listen to Podcasts that I have found credible because they fact check before they air or they fact check during their live Podcasts. Some I’ve found credible are Mehdi Hasan, Five Minute News, The MeidasTouch Network, The Young Turks, Mea Culpa, Brian Tyler Cohen, The Daily Beans, The Lincoln Project to name a few.
The once (Grand Old Party) has become the anti democracy party. They prove it every day with their interviews and continued support of the FPOTUS! If each one of us fact check Trump and his flock of sheep you will see just how many of them we have given a license to lie and spread misinformation and disinformation.
If you refuse to take on this responsibility to find out what’s true and what isn’t you might as well reserve your ticket for your seat on Trump’s Caravan of Buses heading to HELL!
Speaking of cognitive decline, I hope people are paying close attention to just how politically inferior Trump is verses President Biden. All you have to do is LISTEN to what each of them is saying. It’s so obvious that one is all about himself while the other is leading his administration in an effort to protect our country and to help ALL Americans not just the ones that voted for him and his team.
We are a labor oriented society that has a problem, no one wants to work. I live in a rural area that supports a multitude of industrial parks. These businesses have loads of signs in front of their offices asking for help but they never are taken down leaving me to think the positions open are never filled. With gas being so expensive and the fact that vehicles are stupidly priced most Americans are opting to work from home when ever possible. The price of cars is a crippling factor in determining the health of our society. If we can't get to work and things are on an ever increasing price rampage people are in that place between a rock and where they don't want to be. Car companies are producing a product the average person can't possibly afford. Who needs a car that parks itself, drives itself, applies the breaks by itself, turns itself off when ever the thing stops even for a second, and because of all these advanced "improvements" has been priced beyond the reach of most Americans. When I was 17 my dad took me up to Dean Sellers Ford in Detroit and brought me a brand new Mustang 2plus2 fastback, out the door it ran $2,200 and it was the best car I've ever owned. Back then people got new cars every other year or sooner. Why has that time left us? What has changed that rendered onto us all such a financial cesspool? Its not just cars it everything from tennis shoes to a can of Campbell's soup. Inflation is treating our country like a balloon, how long until it pops? If you ask me our entire economy is on drugs. How about another interest hike.
Have you seen what the big 3 CEOs are making as a yearly salary. And you wonder why Americans can’t afford a new car! The billionaires aren’t complaining. I wonder why!
I can give you a number. 20% Right now 90% of all profit and productivity gains goes to 1% of the population. If there was equality than the different groups poor 20%, middle class 20%, upper middle class 20% rich 20%, very rich 20%.
What do we doll out now? Poor, Middle, upper middle roughly the bottom 60% of earners share a fraction of 1%. While 10% share 99% of all. That is greed agregious and attrocius 99% on one side.
Greed starts when you have way too much and still seek more. It's at the expense of others. Workers being paid are not greedy. They simply want to build a decent life, and they are being paid for their labor, labor which is essential to the creation of the things that they make. A fair deal is not greed. Acquiring a huge fortune you sit on and amass power and wealth at the expense of workers and insisting you should still get more is greedy.
If people don't want the job, increase the salary and show workers a bit of respect. My understanding is there are three critical factors around work. A decent salary, a modicum of respect, and some control over the schedule (some workers are forced to be on call all the time so can never relax, forced to work double-shifts, forced to work on public holidays ,night shifts but never offered daycare for their kids).
I want what my parents had. A paycheck that could feed, clothe, and house 6 kids while still allowing a vacation. Nothing fancy, mind you, but those one week vacations just being in the mountains of Northern New Mexico are my fondest memories. Those are memories I was unable to give my own children and it saddens me. A pension that will let me retire as my body breaks down after a lifetime of often working on my feet for eight to ten hours and abusing my body because I couldn't afford the right kind of shoes or whatever. I'm faced with that now. I had 2 jobs that gave 401ks and I lost half of it on the one I actually had any money in. And I got that when I was too old for it to make a difference. Growing up, we were able to go to the doctor when we needed because we had health insurance. By the way, it was my father's union job that gave us most of it. My mother was a department head, aka supervisor, at a small department store. Even then, she had a pension plan and healthcare.
Paulahik: You were 'living the American Dream' which is no longer working.
I thank you for writing this it's such a thoughtful comment.
I do not live in the US (we did for 23yrs but got out when GW Bush got in) we now live in France where we are able to live our old lives with healthcare and every Town has a place for the elderly.
I wish that Americans could see what is going on in their Country BUT they do NOT.
NO person in the Gvt. is on your side.
Please take to heart my empathy for you and really think about who you are voting for if you do.
...for many years I have been watching what is happening and it's getting to the point that want out. as I've come to the realisation there is little hope for this nation. I've been politically, active for years particularly so since my retirement but it is starting to burn me out as I feel I'm only speaking to the choir while banging my head against a stone wall of ignorance.
Neither party here seems committed to working for the people anymore (even though one still claims it does) as in the end both drink from the same big money spigot. Most seniors and the disabled end up living in poverty, and one of those two parties wants to make that situation even worse.
I so much would like to leave this all behind and have a chance to actually enjoy the remaining years in some small quiet town in Portugal or southeast Spain, but sadly it costs a lot to make such a move and settle in, something impossible on my meager SS income.
Terry--We have a problem. Everyone wants more money and with the ever increasing income levels so go the prices of everyday goods. Its a never ending cycle that has no answer as to how to control any aspect of the whirl wind.
You are correct Donald. You can build a cycle where people want more pay which increases prices which forces people to demand more pay or slip backwards. While correct, there are two important factors.
1) The employees where I worked increases productivity by over 20% but did not get a quarter of that as a bump in pay. On average, workers hover around inflation over the last few decades while managers and shareholders soar on the sweaty backs of those workers. How about we pay people for the work they do including their productivity gains. Increasing pay for more productive workers does not increase inflation.
2) Notice the argument is a double standard. When Disney's CEO went from 50 million to over 500 million in compensation, no one was talking about inflation caused by increasing compensation levels. Was the CEO working an 80 hour day to explain the 10x increase? The test of parallelism is most revealing in exposing selective rhetoric.
...tell me about it, I barely make it month to month on my meagre SS benefit which is my only source of income (no savings, no 401k). My rent (in what is classified as a federally subsidized low income studio apartment) is 47% of my monthly income. Thanks to higher grocery prices my monthly food benefit now peter's out about halfway into the month after which shopping comes out of pocket. I rarely put the heat on in winter to try and keep the power bill down and turned down a free AC unit for the same reason.
No more company pensions, not severance, not even a gold plated Rolex knockoff or party anymore when you retire. All I got was compensation for the two weeks of vacation time I didn't use and I felt lucky to get that.
People have become a disposable commodity as evidenced by the name change from "Personnel/Employment Office to "Human Resources". That's what we've become, a resource to be used up and tossed aside when it no longer served a purpose.
Terry--A terrible lesson producers have learned is the public will pay what ever you charge as long as it is within reason, but then whose reason are we talking about.
That's true. The biggest problem is, though, that the CEOs are the ones getting all the raises. If workers were getting a fair portion of that, they wouldn't be so pissed off. Do you read Mr Reich's work at all on a regular basis. He had talked about the widening gap between what the average worker makes and what the executives make and why that's happening. He's talked about corporate greed raising prices beyond their own employees' ability to pay for necessities. They make record profits while the workers' wages stay stagnant. They are making all that only because of the workers!! Workers are just reminding the corporations who actual does all the work that makes them that money. Without us, they will go under. We aren't parasites sucking off the corporate body without giving in return. We're the healthy cells that keep that body going. Without workers, the corporate body is just left with the cancerous CEOs, owners, executives, and shareholders. Those are the real life suckers of a company. If your only job is to buy and make money off the labor of others, you should remember not to strangle those who are doing that labor or you end up strangling yourself. Without us workers, corporations and their overlords are nothing. I think workers are just trying to remind the life-suckers of that.
paulahik--What is a fair share? How many of these destitute people still smoke cigarettes and at what cost. How many use drugs or drink alcohol. How many spend money beyond their means? How many have a lotto habit? There are a ton of factors that deplete a persons level of wealth. "Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves."
How many of those rich farts smoke cigarettes or cigars or drink expensive booze? Are they more worthy in your eyes? By the way, I don't smoke, don't drink, don't get high and still don't have enough to pay for everything I need, much less for what I want. So where's your self-righteousness land on that?
Mary--If the Big three had invested the same time and effort into increasing the efficiency of the internal combustion engine as the did with equipping vehicles with glorified extras we might not be in the predicament where we currently find ourselves.
It appears the car makers have done all that can be done to maximize the performance of the internal combustion engine. This is exemplified by the fact that the thing has to be shut down at a stop to maximize mileage.
But wages have been stagnant while inflation has soared. So wages aren't the reason for the current runaway inflation (which is finally slowing), profits and greed are.
I remember reading a study a few years back that said every 10% in average wage increases only causes a 1% increase in inflation, or something similar. I don't exactly remember the numbers, but I do remember that up until a certain point, wages had very little effect on inflation. (Large, sudden jumps in average pay do show significant increase in inflation.)
You MUST ask yourself this vital question: WHY do people not want to work? Answer: they were pampered during the pandemic and awakened to the fact that they ARE the economy!
In short, they now KNOW they should be getting more than the crumbs the 99% toss to the floor; they are ANGRY AND ENERGIZED!
Also--people are working! Everything is running because people are doing a ton of work in America! And they don't have the things workers in similar but even poorer countries have like job security, healthcare, retirement, paid sick days, paid vacation.
Daniel--There is a myriad of reasons why people choose not to work, I think its not so much that they don't want to, its just they want to do it from home. But your point about being pampered, it has a ring to it.
I heard one of the striking workers during an interview say "the employees of our company can't even afford to buy the car that we produce." If the striking workers want a wage scale that will allow them to afford the cars they're producing they are asking for too much. The price of a new vehicle today with insurance is beyond what people can possibly afford. We have to get car companies to down grade the products they're producing. Get rid of all the frills and extras, give me what was made during the 60s. I need transportation from point "A" to point "B" not a magic carpet ride. Steppenwolf, 1968.
We have an international market for cars. Cars today are much safer than in the 1960s. My Buick GS 400, $3,000 in 1967 offered 13 PMG, My Prius Prime Plug in, $30,000 used in 2020, offers 25 miles on a charge and 55 MPG thereafter, plus a back up camera, front looking radar, lane control, blind spot indicator, tire pressure readings, a better stereo, GPS, etc.
Gerald--If you need more safety features beyond a good set of breaks some bright lights and a loud horn you don't beyond on the road. OK, I'll throw in an air bag or two.
Gerald--Look at the self drive feature for example. How much did that little bit of technology add to the over all price of the vehicle? When the idiot behind the wheel sat there slapping this thighs and clapping his hands all the while knowing he paid through the teeth to get something he could have done by himself for free. Stupidity created by every car company that was silly enough to incorporate that feature into any of their vehicles. They could have taken that investment and given their employees a higher pay scale. Then where we be without a good reason to strike.
Donald, I agree in part. But the safety enhancements help prevent stupid mistakes, like when backing up in a parking lot, missing a car in your blind spot, or backing up over a trash can in the driveway. I am willing to pay extra for these enhancements, but have kept my 2011 Toyota. I am pleased with the new technologies car manufacturers offer. My best car is a Hyundai Ionic.
Mary--They are producing vehicles that are equipped with features that are just not needed. We need to reduce the cost down to a lever where normal people begin to frequent automobile show rooms once again.
This is only a sign of almost full employment. It is not that people don't want to work. There are fewer workers and those workers do not want to work for slave wages.
Mary--In the world of statistics when someone hasn't worked for a long enough period, they fall off the list of the unemployed and are considered invisible. Yes we are being told unemployment is a a very low level but how many invisible people does that include. The jobs that are available entail work many Americans don't want to do.
I don’t understand why no one wants to work; I found great purpose and fulfillment in working in healthcare that was at that time much more care than profit motive. What are the barriers to work that”Steve....” speak of? I do understand the nature of work has changed a great deal, and perhaps those barriers explain the statement?
I think we have seen what happens when everything is done for you. Give your kids chores and make them work when they are old enough. Make them get a job and have some responsibility along with self worth.
The problem I see here is "make". I did give my children chores but I didn't make them do them. I paid them and they had money to spend when we went shopping. If they didn't do their chores, they didn't have money and couldn't buy anything. They are excellent workers who set goals for themselves and accomplish them. This is called discipline. They internalized the good habit.
BS! People want to work. They just refuse to become slaves. They're angry that the corporations make so much money off our backs, with the CEOs playing golf, sailing on yachts, touring the world, in short, living off the fruits of OUR labor, not theirs. Without us, those CEOs and corporate demigods have and are nothing. They vilify the working class just as you do, saying we're "lazy" when the opposite is true. They live a lazy life, using the majority of the money made off our labor while they give us a pittance that doesn't even pay our rent. We're ANGRY that we stare homelessness in the face every. Single. Day. Even as we work our guts out and have to ignore out families. We're ANGRY that our children are having to raise themselves because Mom and/or Dad have to work so much they are barely home. Workers aren't lazy. We're angry and we're getting angrier. Much like the French peasants did about the time of Bastille Day. And we don't even have the cake to eat.
paulahik--To me, and I'm nobody, you're spending far too much time comparing yourself to others. If you look at what others have and what you don't you'll never be happy. I'm not rich and I could care less about what the wealthy do with their time or what the possess. I'm my own person, my life is of my own making, if I become a nothing it because I wanted my life to be that way.
It's not that no one wants to work, it's that no one wants a job that pays so little it's not worth taking it. Yes inflation is bad but it's because of the monopolies that can raise prices with impunity.
Alan --When I was in my 30s I worked fulltime for Sears, and I also had two part time jobs to boot. I worked 80 a week in total. Between the three efforts I made enough to get by and raise my 3 children. Never once did I ever think I should be earning more money for the work I was doing. I had no real skills and the position I was in was of my own making and I accepted it. In life if you want to be paid more you first must be worth more. Getting an education and obtaining a skill was something that society left up to my own discretion. What I made of myself was something that was left up to me.
If a federal law were to be passed that restricts sales of oil-gasoline produced in the USA to the USA market, then the price of automotive fuel would be manageable and truly reflect local conditions. As soon as Exxon and the rest are prohibited from selling oil and gas overseas, the domestic market’s consumers will benefit.
Stan--How do we justify the decision to force big oil companies to sell their products only to designated customers. That's a kick in the butt to free enterprise. However, push comes to shove your thought has merit.
Unfortunately for all of us, the big corporations not only set the wages (when unions are so scarce) they also set prices. Just watch: despite making record profits on their overpriced cars, the big 3 will jack up the prices and blame it on the higher pay demanded by the workers.
We are a “Capital” oriented society. How else can this disparity between capital and labor be explained? Capital doesn’t exist without labor. Success of all members of a society doesn’t exist without collaboration, cooperation, participation, and agreed upon levels of fairness and equity, between capital and labor. Separately, “socialism” has value, as does capitalism, when not unfettered without bounds (Libraries, Fire/Police Departments, etc.)
“ In 2021, the ratio of CEO-to-typical-worker compensation was 399-to-1 under the realized measure of CEO pay; that is up from 366-to-1 in 2020 and a big increase from 20-to-1 in 1965 and 59-to-1 in 1989. CEOs are even making a lot more than other very high earners (wage earners in the top 0.1%)—almost seven times as much. From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay based on realized compensation grew by 1,460%, far outstripping S&P stock market growth (1,063%) and top 0.1% earnings growth (which was 385% between 1978 and 2020, according to the latest data available). In contrast, compensation of the typical worker grew by just 18.1% from 1978 to 2021.
Papa--If we as a society are looking to find a form of equality between labor and ownership don't hold your breath. It's an out of balance relationship that is tumultuous at best. One can't exist without the other but respect between the two in out the window. We need a fix.
As we see from their recent statements in negotiating with their unions, the major car companies have been taken over by people whose only concern is maximum profit and maximum compensation for their executives and investors. They are unable to see that building regular, reliable cars for regular, reliable people might be a solid source of profit for them. It's almost as if the auto executives have their identities tied up with having the brightest, shiniest, highest technology, most expensive new models (the way some of our friends and neighbors once did), and "keeping up with the Jones's" - other car companies - is far more important to them than doing anything that makes sense for society, their workers, or the planet.
A new Mustang today is much safer, more reliable, and will last for much longer if you take care of it. A used one for 10 grand is a better car than a new one from the 60s or 70s IMHO.
Tim--Your opinion. Try doing your own tune-up. I did as a kid and I enjoyed opening the hood and actually seeing the engine along with the ground beneath it. It was a simpler time, and a better way of life.
I, too, listen to many of the people/groups you've mentioned. My favorites are Mehdi Hasan, which my son got me on, MeidasTouch, Young Turks, Brian Tyler Cohen, and Lincoln Project. I also have fact checked them to make sure they're worth listening to and have found them to be accurate. I might suggest you also try Beau of the Fifth. I watch him on YouTube, but I think he has a podcast, too. Beau is very down-to-earth and fact based and is very thought provoking.
Well send. That is way I have just created a website to help people understand how the government works and way their informed vote is so important. With effort we the people can take back the government.
I have gone a step further and am creating an on-line business that helps potential voters and current voters learn about the three branches of the US government. It is nonpartisan, factual information and education. Hopefully the website will help people know who they are voting for and why their vote is so important to create positive change.
Great. If our states enacted open primaries, a majority of voters could select the top two candidates, replacing candidates nominated by a minority of voters from the far right and left.
Almost finished with the website. I am Boot Strapping this business and taking a little longer than I thought. The more I have learned the big it all gets.
This is a National site for now. Maybe later cover the states.
Unfortunately most of the middle class has become ignorant about how economies work and therefore take the easiest way out, by blaming the President, rather than looking at the richest Americans and Corporations and THEIR profit margins. If we don't wake up soon and make some major adjustments our "democracy" will be lost...
Jeannie, you are right on target with the blame game. It is so easy to do that because you only have to mention one name, the president's and your friends will nod and move on in the conversation. If you say, "those greedy corporations are price-gouging, union-busting, and treating workers badly" your friend will have turned off hoping for a better conversation. This nation lives with the myth of wealth being the primary goal of everyone. Excess is glorified, and average people dream of having stuff they will never get and would probably not care for it much if they got it. How do we alter the myth to be a story of working for the common good, paying workers decent wages, making the top salaries far less than they are now, including stock income. Who will take up the challenge? Who in Congress does not understand that they need heaps of money to run a campaign these days since Citizens United? We need unions everywhere and some laws in place to protect the workers from the well-practiced tactics used by the corporations to keep unions out: lying, cheating, misinforming, threatening, firing, etc.
I get the feeling that I don't really understand what the economy is. When I see the gross overpaying of the managers, I feel like we should walk away from those jobs, and live on our own craft (then everyone would be their own business - not realistic). How could one organize a system where everyone gets what they need? Of course, if everything gets destroyed by an erratic climate then survival might be the best we can do - money might not have the value it does now.
Janet, as a union member myself, I think everyone should have access to a working union. It helps all of us have more trustworthy employers, a better paycheck, and colleagues working for common goals.
Most of the middle class is not only ignorant about how economies work. They are ignorant about how our government works. As you point out, they blame the President rather than looking at that co-equal branch, Congress, and the courts. You'd think President Biden is a dictator who has unilateral power and control over our government. With respect to labor, you'd probably be hard pressed to find a person who knows of the existence of the Labor Relations Board and the National Labor Relations Act and the role it has play over the past few decades in bringing labor to the place it is now in here in the U.S. Of course, when did you last read about the NLRB in one of the major newspapers? Did I hear you say not since 1977? Yes, that would about right. Of course, Republican influence on all of these institutions of our government has been malignant. Wish I knew what we could do about it all. Seems as though the Democrats have kind of lost labor and that cannot end well.
..I love it whne people blame high petrol prices on the president whne they don't read the news. several months ago the Saudis announced they were going to cut back production (which they did) and all of sudden prices at the pump started going up again. The other factor in this was the petrol company themselves which raked in obscene record profits over hte past two years but last year saw fit to gouge gouge us at the pump.
The same for grocery prices that also shot up last year and in some cases have not come down.
I agree POTUS does not run the gasoline marketplace. When the pandemic hit, oil companies were losing money. I am ok with their profits. Oil is fungible and its market is inelastic. Higher gasoline prices will reduce consumption and reduce carbon emissions. Some oil companies are investing in renewables. Folks can save gas money by not exceeding the speed limit and buying gas efficient vehicles, including plug in hybrids. My Hyundai Ionic gets more than 60 PMG. Cities designers can comingle residential are commercial areas so folks do not have to drive to go to work or buy groceries. Plus walking will help reduce one's weight and lower the incidence of diabetes mellitus, saving on the cost of drugs.
So spot on! The American people have been subjected to lower wages benefits and across the board prosperity since 1970’s. I remember the benefits of Unions to families! Pensions, Blue Cross, a living wage! A family could live with dignity. Home ownership, cars, vacations, affordable education...and much more! Corporations always return to the cruelty of Management Ownership of employees.
After WW2 the armed forces came home to make a stand globally. They demanded a life of progress and opportunities for all!! We have slid into this situation by complacency and the oppression of Vulture Capitalism..
Now we have an Authoritarian regime masquerading as a Political Party! Aka a Crime Syndicate...The Trump Cartel who have harnessed the deep despair of Americans who don’t see them, and their ultimate goal? This is a result of the Devastating effects of poor wages, unaffordable education and lack of access to healthcare
UNIONS provide a contract for services and a return to economic prosperity!
And worse, the MAGAs want to make sure it stays that way by eliminating the DOE and implementing right-wing religious curriculum policies, that eliminate the existing liberal education policies in grades 1 - 12, and even in institutions of higher learning, they claim "liberals, Marxists, and Communists" have imposed. That's been coming since the '80s with the rise of "charter schools," which I've >always< considered a thinly veiled dodge aimed at imposing religious indoctrination on, specifically, the youngest of students, at the earliest age they can get possibly away with - at the moment. The lie is, the lie has always been, that crime will go away, and the kids won't need to know about government or economics if only they learn to work hard, worship vapors, and "be nice" - which was always a buzz word meaning "know their place!" Sometimes, it's called "having good manners." That's as opposed to "uppity" - like union members!
...the fact they scream about liberal "indoctrination" when that is what they actually plan to do by selectively whitewashing history along with denying science, and fact clearly illustrates the extent of their hypocrisy
Exactly! 👍 They always demonize "the other" for what they intend to do. That way they believe they can justify their claim - when "the other" understandably complains - that they're abolishing the indoctrination that has taken place for decades, thus begging the question - >knowing< the voters seldom notice.
The objective is a capitalist paradise. Here's an example of such a paradise, that having all the undereducated the MAGA rulers so love will likely lead to:
Sounds more like Indians are duped into working as slaves. They come with the promise of good paying jobs, then their passports are confiscated upon arrival and they have no choice other than to work jobs at whatever wage the employer deigns to give them, where they're paid only occasionally, while being held responsible for the debt levied on them for the passage from India to Dubai, that was supposed to be paid for >by the employer< in the first place, and then must suffer increasing interest on the "loans" they received for said passage costs, that they can't pay because their wage is too low and unreliably paid. Is that you're saying Indians choose?
I don't think people fully understand the nature of poverty in India. Why would you think the Indians who get duped even have access to the tech needed to be informed by social media? Think "community outhouses."
Hi Cathie- here is a more explicit statement: Some republicans focus on social issues such as abortion, gay rights, and books in school libraries instead of matters that are more important, at least to me, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a practical way, eliminating access to military grade weapons (except for a member of a well regulated militia), more equitable tax policy and enforcement, the war in Ukraine, how best to mitigate the high cost of child care with tax policy, etc.
Great job growth and increasing union power threatening higher wages commensurate with supply & demand in a tight labor market . . . OOPS! Time for an interest rate hike!
As usual, great going, Dr. Reich, since America needs the union turnaround once again, just like it did after World War II. Only a strong middle class can ensure widespread prosperity and a healthy democracy. As Hitler and his ilk showed in the 30's and Trump and his are showing us today, fascists and authoritarians can only feed off mass discontent. Come on everyone, get unionized!
I fully agree, Anthony. I was a union member for 35 years and a union officer for 15 of those years with the United Steelworkers of America and i fully support unions. I have been retired for 18 years now and the union got us the pension that i get every month now. I hope the UAW gets their raise and better benefits for the workers at the BIG 3. They deserve it after years of concessions to the automakers.
The UAW and the Teamsters assured my summer jobs in a car factory and driving a truck paid enough to finance 1/3 of my cost of college and medical school.
I don't understand your comment Indie. But, my father may have been in the UAW before WWII. I was in the UAW when I worked my summer job during college at the Willow Run Fischer Body Plant. I was a spotwelder. My job is probably automated today, based on the new technology I found on my tour of the BMW plant in Munich two years ago.
That was very generous of the UAW and the Teamsters for doing that for you, Our union did some very good things too, especially when the company i worked for closed down, we got a severance payout i never dreamed we would get, and got us a great retirement bonus too, but we were always kinda behind the UAW in strength. I had 3 uncles and 2 first cousins that were GM assembly plant employees and UAW members and their pay and benefits were ahead of what we got from the Steelworkers union. The UAW and Teamsters have always been strong unions.. The United Steelworkers seemed to be stronger in the large plants, Our company was a much smaller corporation, so our smaller membership at our stainless steel tubing plant was somewhat behind the larger corporations.
Thank you very much, Mr. Reich, being a union member and their accountant officer for 15 years and the union's total dedication to Democratic party and Democracy greatly strengthened my Democratic views. The union NEVER endorsed any Republican politician in my 35 years of membership. They openly condemned Republicans, and so did I.
From the outside looking in, I am unable to understand why the workers are never given the option of equity as retention, and incentives. It is a simple way to reward and engage, workers.
Automobile industry is dying with only a handful of automakers globally that will survive. Unfortunately, Ford or General Motors, do not have a high probability of survival today without municipal, state or federal benefits.
It very much looks like crony capitalism wants to extract as much as it can, in this dying industry before it is bankrupt.
If anyone wanted to truly save the automobile industry, it would be apparent to give equity, fair benefits to the workers, and partner with them to save the industry.
Unions seek union representation on corporate boards of directors. UAW leader Douglas Fraser was nominated to Chrysler's board in 1980 by Lee Iacocca after his critical role in lobbying for legislation that provided the federally guaranteed loans that let Chrysler avert bankruptcy. He served on the board for four years, and is remembered for both protecting employee interests as well as extracting needed concessions from them. In his 2008 obituary, the New York Times wrote that in addition to a deal at Chrysler that cut workers' wages by $3 an hour, he also agreed to deals at GM and Ford Motor that froze wages and cost-of-living raises temporarily.
When GM and Chrysler were in bankruptcy, unions tried and failed to gain seats on their boards, but in 2014, Joe Ashton, UAW was added by GM.
In Germany, one of the biggest capitalist companies in the world, workers at big corporations elect 50% of the board. At medium-sized companies with up to 2,000 employees, workers elect a third of the board.
We have ESOPs, an employee benefit plan that enables employees to own part or all of the company they work for. ESOPs are most commonly used to facilitate succession planning, allowing a company owner to sell his or her. shares and transition flexibly out of the business, The United Steelworkers and the United Food & Commercial Workers, International Association of Machinists and United Auto Workers have used ESOPs to save jobs. Employee stock ownership plans for union members have become popular because they create union solidarity and closer identification with the concerns and goals of employees rather than employers.
Hear, hear--income inequality can stagnate economies and give the rich far too much power. I am not sure about anyone else, but I certainly don't want to labor under an oligarchy. The Republicans and perhaps a few Democrats don't really care--if on no one is fighting for us, we must fight for ourselves.
Capitalism is akin to a team sport without a referee. Even the father of modern Capitalism Adam Smith recognised the value of imposing societal norms upon the workings of Capitalism via regulatory laws. Ethical standards have declined in relation to both employee treatment and consumer protection and constructing a tax system that penalises share buybacks to boost executive bonuses would be a useful start.
Fear of communism was what allowed unions to grow. When that fear subsided, unions were blamed for everything (Ronald Reagan). The stock market is so computerized the little guy doesn't stand a chance (whatever happened to the transaction tax?). Unions can be a pain in the butt, but they may be our best hope for a middle class.
Ronald Reagan is responsible for that so-called 'trickle down economics' which is another reason we are in this mess now. I still fear communism and fascism but I want the Unions to help build a better middle class. It is time America distribute the wealth of this country the way it should be.
Proud 30-year (now lifetime) member of Writers Guild of America, West, here. Striking again, and picketing with younger members who deserve the same earning capacity that I was fortunate enough to experience. Ours is truly an existential strike - like The Ukrainians, if we lose we cease to exist; if the adversary loses, they go back to their private jets and mega yachts.
What truly is Tragic is the large percentage of American workers who are NOT represented by Unions and work for even lower wages than Union Workers! Labor continues to be exploited in this country. The first 20k of all wages should be tax free. The next 20k of earnings should be at 5%. Capital Gain Tax rates should be at 40% not 20%. Irrevocable Trusts should be denied for Estate Tax planning. ESTATE Taxes should be charged on all Estates over 6 million dollars not 12 million dollars. This would personally cause me grave tax consequences but it would result in a greater good being accomplished and reward the very people that produce goods and services we all benefit from. We need to move from tax greed mentality of the wealthy to tax motivation for the productive !
Please look into the Singular Movement here in Substack. Union activism is an important component to revitalizing the middle class but Re-engineering our tax, benefit and healthcare payment systems is the most effective way the federal government can promote the American Dream.
I agree with Prof. Reich that the worker unrest going on right now is good for America. There has been so much lying and misinforming going on in the past decades that it is a relief to hear people openly talking about the value of unions and how courageous it is for the unions to strike when the corporations just somehow can't pay workers reasonable wages in relation to the salaries the guys (nearly always men) at the top pay themselves. The fact that many restaurant workers are still paid around $2.16 an hour plus tips is outrageous. They are mostly not unionized. Flight attendants' time clock does not start until the doors of the plane are closed and the plane is about to take off. Whoever heard of such a ridiculous plan. The attendants have so much work to do when the plane is loading and unloading and not to be paid for that! Unions can be problematic, like the "police unions" which only support the whole when the whole looks like and goes along with the leadership. However, most unions do a good job for workers. Companies benefit too because turnover is usually lower and contracts can let the corporation know what costs will be for workers the duration of the contract, providing some stability. Maybe we need a TV series about union organizers who go around helping workers to unionize. Maybe it would raise workers and unions even further in the eyes of the public.
I'm 68 years old and I grew up hearing my blue collar father say, "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Economic inequality is my third most important political concern surpassed only by #1 climate change and #2 preserving what we have left in this country of our functioning democratic principles and institutions in the wake of Citizens United and the capturing of the Supreme Court by Republican reactionaries. While climate eclipses politics and economic justice in the long run, the urgency of regaining Democratic governance in the interest of once again reestablishing democratic governance is a short-term matter of existential importance.
Agreed. It should be obvious that repealing Taft-Hartley would also provide a gigantic boost to union formation; replacing Sinema and Manchin and the GQP House loons with progressives would do the trick. Perhaps Biden should then announce new legislation to reform labor-management relations to be more like the less antagonistic bargaining systems in Germany or Japan, which would be a lasting achievement. (I do worry, though, that it would mean losing political points with a Gen Z more excited for aggressive labor activism than in previous generations, a point I made to Clyde Prestowitz when he criticized the strikes.)
Unfortunately, unions are up for grabs. Democrats do not have a lock on unions. Trump is telliing the strikers that all cars will be built in China because the big three is making only electric cars.
"The Trump campaign has produced a radio ad that will begin running on Tuesday in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, trying to cast Mr. Trump as aligned with autoworkers. The same Trump adviser said the ad targeted union workers and men, and will air on sports and rock-themed stations."
“All they’ve ever wanted is to compete fairly worldwide and get their fair share of the American dream,” the narrator says in the ad. “Donald Trump calls them great Americans and has always had their backs.”
sounds like a smart thing to do. So Biden should be running the ads that tell them how TFG and crew have screwed them over and wil screw them again and he has their backs.
Yeah, that’s true. The most likely outcome I see is the strike will drag on into November or December, but the UAW leadership will endorse Biden four or so weeks from now.
Many in the membership voted for Trump twice, are anti-immigrant, and some have that collective racist subconscious. They remember jobs lost to China, Japan, S. Korea, and most especially the more than one million Mexicans working in the 3,000+ maquiladora plants.
Nevermind that Biden is bringing new car jobs and Trump was an utter failure.
Mr. Solomon, I agree with most of what you have written in today’s discussion thread, and you may be right about Biden being the “most pro labor president since LBJ”. However, I question just how pro labor he is. Three of the facts that lead me to be skeptical about his pro labor bonafides are: 1. Why keep Jerome Powell as head of the Fed. when most of its rate hikes have hurt labor? 2. Why not get rid of deJoy as head of the USPS, when he is trying to privatize the postal service, which would result in the loss of good paying jobs with benefits? 3. Why doesn’t he use the bully pulpit to tout how many good paying, skilled jobs would be created by aggressively promoting a “green new deal” economy?
There are problems in getting union rank and file to vote D at rates you would expect.
Williamson has zero experience and no concept whatsoever of what Presidency job entails. Would you ask some one to rebuild your Harley Davidson who hasn't even ridden one ?
Jarrod: Please I beg you -- if you have any influence with anybody affiliated with the UAW -- do NOT I repeat NOT encourage that individual to encourage Shawn Fain to back Marianne Williamson. But having said that -- if you don't respond well to people pressuring you -- forget everything I just said. 🥺😰
Jarrod: Definitely - as a mixed-feelings-for/against-Biden voter myself - I empathize with your hesitancy and feel strongly you are entitled to your opinion.
But even Bernie knows what's at stake this election. I'm sure he has been advising the Biden administration re: what platform issues will resonate with the base that got Biden where he is now and will help him retain his presidency -- that base being the Progressives who supported Biden despite their disappointment.
And who need to support him now even if they are disappointed in certain ways with the present administration. This time we stand on the edge of a precipice. One misstep . . .
Another gigantic boost to union formation would be repeal of "Right to Work" laws that exist in many states. It's tough to establish and run a union in these states. My state, Virginia, has such a law (passed years ago by the Dixiecrats). Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers Union represents workers at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, VA. Many shipyard worker "free riders" refuse to join or pay dues under right to work rules. This makes it more difficult for the union to do its job representing the workers versus the company.
Fortunately, Taft-Hartley repeal would enable such state laws to be repealed as well, it and creating an American Ghent system of UI administration would be the silver bullet to the labor decline issue
Reich wrote something quite important "But something far more basic is going on here. As I travel around the country, I hear from average working people an anger and bitterness I haven't heard for decades".
And one outlet for these feelings is through union acitivity we're seeing
But TFG and the rightwing has been able to channel this anger against anything that restricts their power.
Their narrative against the "deep state", aka the Federal government , continues. Listen to some of this Sen Hawley questioning of Energy Sec Granholm and read the comments on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LetXp2DJhiA
He is whipping up anger against Federal employees and the Feds generally. Some of the public is angry that civil servants have been able to still have a middle class life, and even a pension. Their anger is being misdirected away from wealthy elites who have made their own lives worse and denied them pensions in many cases. I think the Dems have to do a better job in directing the public's economic injustice anger, and why a Dem President is someone on their side.
Hawley was financially backed by the Missouri asbestos king Humphreys (who has also bought many House and Senate seats in the Missouri legislature) to get him elected to MO attorney general, and then into the Senate. Humphreys now regrets he put Hawley in the Senate.
If our Democratic candidates in Missouri could get even crumbs from some of the well-heeled democrats on the east and west coasts, not to mention national orgs, we would immediately stop the Republican supermajority in Missouri which would help nationally by beating back some of the extremism. https://bluemissouri.org/ We only need 4 seats to flip the Missouri House and Colin Lovett lost the 100th house district by only 1%. Hint. https://votelovett.com/about/
CEO/Executive pay raise rates should be equal to worker pay raises. 1:1 is fair, IMO. If the company can afford to give the CEO a 40% raise, then the company can afford to give workers a 40% raise too.
When the CEO says a 40% pay increase for himself AND workers would break the company, the obvious reply from reporters should be "then why do you get a 40% pay increase? Why not 25-30% pay increase for you AND workers? Why not be fair and SHARE the profits made possible by the workers?"
If the "average CEO" gets $20M a year, that works out to about $8,500.00 per hour.
We need to keep repeating that number every time folks talk about "companies can't afford that". How many workers make $85/hour, or $8.50/hour? Does the company really need the employee making eight thousand five hundred dollars per hour? Exactly who's being greedy in this scenario?
Basic maths,and refusing to see it. One person earns $50 million and gets a 40% pay rise.The rise costs $20 million.That would be a large company.Said large company employs 100,000 people on say $50K per annum.The rise would cost 100,000 X 20,000 a nice figure of $2 billion,said company goes bust.
I don't know why people deny it.A large number divided by a large number is a small number.A small number multiplied by a large number is a very large number. One billion X 2 is a huge 100% increase in wages,or costs,or profit,or revenue etc etc.
Absent union representation, in most states, workers work "at will" and have no (0) rights. Most American workers have no (0) rights.
The current UAW contract pits groups of workers against each other. Also retirees against eav=c other. "Amid the recession and in subsequent contracts, the UAW agreed to numerous concessions for retirees including the elimination of inflation protection pay for retirees that provided lump sum payments at the end of the year to workers or widows based on inflation rates, elimination of healthcare for retirees and the takeaway of pensions for many workers, as they were replaced with 401(k)s for autoworkers in agreements in the wake of the 2008 recession."
Thank you Robert for your continued labor positive point of view. I’m sure my father is smiling from his great beyond at your great sage words as they remind me so much of how he used to analyze and think you’re keeping the economic truths alive and any thinking American who is labor aware should to be grateful for the economic and political truth you tirelessly expose! May labor, and our labor positive president win in the end and...BIG!!!
Higher pay and labor costs don't stop exploitation of labor. The Wealthy merely just raise prices on goods and services and the victory is short lived and only benefits briefly those represented by the unions. The Tax Code is the only way where all labor both Union and Non-union can be properly rewarded for the goods and services that benefit all Americans. It is time we take action against non-working unproductive non tax paying Trust fund recipients. Labor needs rewarded in this country NOT the unproductive wealthy live like parasites off the hard work of labor.
This isn't true at all. We have 1) historical evidence of the benefit of unions 2) comparative evidence between countries and also between unionized and non unionized. Unions improve living standards across the board. The absence of unions is a race to the bottom.
Unions fail to represent most working people. We need to broaden to support all labor not just Union labor. Increases in minimum wages and increased labor contracts fail to protect labor from abuse as wealthy just mark up goods and services and labors net gain is negated. We need to exempt the first 20k of earnings from income tax. The second 20k of earnings should be taxed at only 5%. People who make over 500k a year should be taxed at 50%. Capital Gains need taxed at 40% not 20%. Irrevocable Trust transfers that result in no estate tax should be prohibited. Estate Tax Exemptions for estate tax should be 5 million instead of 13 million. It is time our tax code encourages and rewards workers that make goods and services that benefit all Americans. Trust Fund recipients that don't work and provide goods and services should pay 50% income tax on all Trust fund income. It is time we reward work rather than wealth with our tax code! The Tax code allows all labor to benefit BOTH Union and NonUnion.
To All My Fellow Citizens of the United States. Before You Go To The Polls To Vote From This Point Forward Please Think About The Following
There are a lot of things we can improve on however we all love Our Freedoms and Our Rights. In order to protect all of them we have to hold ourselves accountable and responsible. It’s up to all of us to fact check the nominees before voting them into office.
Most of us have cellphones, computers or IPads to
vet the nominees. Almost every one who runs for public office has a Wikipedia page that I have found to be mostly accurate by fact checking against other reputable sources. I also find some Substacks to be credible sources of accurate information such as Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, Joyce Vance, Steve Schmidt (a Former Republican), who founded the Lincoln Project podcast, Steady, Dan Rather and Elliot Kirshner’s Substack, to name a few. I also listen to Podcasts that I have found credible because they fact check before they air or they fact check during their live Podcasts. Some I’ve found credible are Mehdi Hasan, Five Minute News, The MeidasTouch Network, The Young Turks, Mea Culpa, Brian Tyler Cohen, The Daily Beans, The Lincoln Project to name a few.
The once (Grand Old Party) has become the anti democracy party. They prove it every day with their interviews and continued support of the FPOTUS! If each one of us fact check Trump and his flock of sheep you will see just how many of them we have given a license to lie and spread misinformation and disinformation.
If you refuse to take on this responsibility to find out what’s true and what isn’t you might as well reserve your ticket for your seat on Trump’s Caravan of Buses heading to HELL!
Speaking of cognitive decline, I hope people are paying close attention to just how politically inferior Trump is verses President Biden. All you have to do is LISTEN to what each of them is saying. It’s so obvious that one is all about himself while the other is leading his administration in an effort to protect our country and to help ALL Americans not just the ones that voted for him and his team.
We are a labor oriented society that has a problem, no one wants to work. I live in a rural area that supports a multitude of industrial parks. These businesses have loads of signs in front of their offices asking for help but they never are taken down leaving me to think the positions open are never filled. With gas being so expensive and the fact that vehicles are stupidly priced most Americans are opting to work from home when ever possible. The price of cars is a crippling factor in determining the health of our society. If we can't get to work and things are on an ever increasing price rampage people are in that place between a rock and where they don't want to be. Car companies are producing a product the average person can't possibly afford. Who needs a car that parks itself, drives itself, applies the breaks by itself, turns itself off when ever the thing stops even for a second, and because of all these advanced "improvements" has been priced beyond the reach of most Americans. When I was 17 my dad took me up to Dean Sellers Ford in Detroit and brought me a brand new Mustang 2plus2 fastback, out the door it ran $2,200 and it was the best car I've ever owned. Back then people got new cars every other year or sooner. Why has that time left us? What has changed that rendered onto us all such a financial cesspool? Its not just cars it everything from tennis shoes to a can of Campbell's soup. Inflation is treating our country like a balloon, how long until it pops? If you ask me our entire economy is on drugs. How about another interest hike.
Have you seen what the big 3 CEOs are making as a yearly salary. And you wonder why Americans can’t afford a new car! The billionaires aren’t complaining. I wonder why!
Keith--I've seen and I've heard and it doesn't excuse the reasoning behind their greed.
Whose greed? Because your previous post makes it sound like you're talking about worker's desire to make a decent living wage as "greed."
paulahik--Define a decent living wage in dollars for me, its a number that elude me. There is greed on both sides.
I can give you a number. 20% Right now 90% of all profit and productivity gains goes to 1% of the population. If there was equality than the different groups poor 20%, middle class 20%, upper middle class 20% rich 20%, very rich 20%.
What do we doll out now? Poor, Middle, upper middle roughly the bottom 60% of earners share a fraction of 1%. While 10% share 99% of all. That is greed agregious and attrocius 99% on one side.
Greed starts when you have way too much and still seek more. It's at the expense of others. Workers being paid are not greedy. They simply want to build a decent life, and they are being paid for their labor, labor which is essential to the creation of the things that they make. A fair deal is not greed. Acquiring a huge fortune you sit on and amass power and wealth at the expense of workers and insisting you should still get more is greedy.
If people don't want the job, increase the salary and show workers a bit of respect. My understanding is there are three critical factors around work. A decent salary, a modicum of respect, and some control over the schedule (some workers are forced to be on call all the time so can never relax, forced to work double-shifts, forced to work on public holidays ,night shifts but never offered daycare for their kids).
Healthcare and decent holidays
I want what my parents had. A paycheck that could feed, clothe, and house 6 kids while still allowing a vacation. Nothing fancy, mind you, but those one week vacations just being in the mountains of Northern New Mexico are my fondest memories. Those are memories I was unable to give my own children and it saddens me. A pension that will let me retire as my body breaks down after a lifetime of often working on my feet for eight to ten hours and abusing my body because I couldn't afford the right kind of shoes or whatever. I'm faced with that now. I had 2 jobs that gave 401ks and I lost half of it on the one I actually had any money in. And I got that when I was too old for it to make a difference. Growing up, we were able to go to the doctor when we needed because we had health insurance. By the way, it was my father's union job that gave us most of it. My mother was a department head, aka supervisor, at a small department store. Even then, she had a pension plan and healthcare.
Paulahik: You were 'living the American Dream' which is no longer working.
I thank you for writing this it's such a thoughtful comment.
I do not live in the US (we did for 23yrs but got out when GW Bush got in) we now live in France where we are able to live our old lives with healthcare and every Town has a place for the elderly.
I wish that Americans could see what is going on in their Country BUT they do NOT.
NO person in the Gvt. is on your side.
Please take to heart my empathy for you and really think about who you are voting for if you do.
We've thought of moving to Germany. My son works for a German company.
...for many years I have been watching what is happening and it's getting to the point that want out. as I've come to the realisation there is little hope for this nation. I've been politically, active for years particularly so since my retirement but it is starting to burn me out as I feel I'm only speaking to the choir while banging my head against a stone wall of ignorance.
Neither party here seems committed to working for the people anymore (even though one still claims it does) as in the end both drink from the same big money spigot. Most seniors and the disabled end up living in poverty, and one of those two parties wants to make that situation even worse.
I so much would like to leave this all behind and have a chance to actually enjoy the remaining years in some small quiet town in Portugal or southeast Spain, but sadly it costs a lot to make such a move and settle in, something impossible on my meager SS income.
Terry--We have a problem. Everyone wants more money and with the ever increasing income levels so go the prices of everyday goods. Its a never ending cycle that has no answer as to how to control any aspect of the whirl wind.
You are correct Donald. You can build a cycle where people want more pay which increases prices which forces people to demand more pay or slip backwards. While correct, there are two important factors.
1) The employees where I worked increases productivity by over 20% but did not get a quarter of that as a bump in pay. On average, workers hover around inflation over the last few decades while managers and shareholders soar on the sweaty backs of those workers. How about we pay people for the work they do including their productivity gains. Increasing pay for more productive workers does not increase inflation.
2) Notice the argument is a double standard. When Disney's CEO went from 50 million to over 500 million in compensation, no one was talking about inflation caused by increasing compensation levels. Was the CEO working an 80 hour day to explain the 10x increase? The test of parallelism is most revealing in exposing selective rhetoric.
You have no social help to fall back on if things get tough.
Greed has been the US motto for years.
...tell me about it, I barely make it month to month on my meagre SS benefit which is my only source of income (no savings, no 401k). My rent (in what is classified as a federally subsidized low income studio apartment) is 47% of my monthly income. Thanks to higher grocery prices my monthly food benefit now peter's out about halfway into the month after which shopping comes out of pocket. I rarely put the heat on in winter to try and keep the power bill down and turned down a free AC unit for the same reason.
No more company pensions, not severance, not even a gold plated Rolex knockoff or party anymore when you retire. All I got was compensation for the two weeks of vacation time I didn't use and I felt lucky to get that.
People have become a disposable commodity as evidenced by the name change from "Personnel/Employment Office to "Human Resources". That's what we've become, a resource to be used up and tossed aside when it no longer served a purpose.
Greed in the upper echelon. They're the ones who own lots of stock and make enough money to buy their own islands.
Terry--A terrible lesson producers have learned is the public will pay what ever you charge as long as it is within reason, but then whose reason are we talking about.
That's true. The biggest problem is, though, that the CEOs are the ones getting all the raises. If workers were getting a fair portion of that, they wouldn't be so pissed off. Do you read Mr Reich's work at all on a regular basis. He had talked about the widening gap between what the average worker makes and what the executives make and why that's happening. He's talked about corporate greed raising prices beyond their own employees' ability to pay for necessities. They make record profits while the workers' wages stay stagnant. They are making all that only because of the workers!! Workers are just reminding the corporations who actual does all the work that makes them that money. Without us, they will go under. We aren't parasites sucking off the corporate body without giving in return. We're the healthy cells that keep that body going. Without workers, the corporate body is just left with the cancerous CEOs, owners, executives, and shareholders. Those are the real life suckers of a company. If your only job is to buy and make money off the labor of others, you should remember not to strangle those who are doing that labor or you end up strangling yourself. Without us workers, corporations and their overlords are nothing. I think workers are just trying to remind the life-suckers of that.
paulahik--What is a fair share? How many of these destitute people still smoke cigarettes and at what cost. How many use drugs or drink alcohol. How many spend money beyond their means? How many have a lotto habit? There are a ton of factors that deplete a persons level of wealth. "Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves."
How many of those rich farts smoke cigarettes or cigars or drink expensive booze? Are they more worthy in your eyes? By the way, I don't smoke, don't drink, don't get high and still don't have enough to pay for everything I need, much less for what I want. So where's your self-righteousness land on that?
Or "Take care of the workers and the profits will take care of themselves"
Paulahik.
People in devastating circumstances do things like drink/smoke/drugs etc because they are in despair. Yes and Lotto too.
You have been brought up with propaganda which says: The American Dream means you can have it all.
As you have seen it doesn't work that way?
perhaps CEOs and higher up employees need to pay themselves less. https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51332811 Dan Price decided to pay all his employees $70k per year and reduced his salary to $70k as well. Here's what happened during the pandemic. https://boingboing.net/2021/01/24/whatever-happened-to-the-company-that-decided-to-pay-all-of-its-employees-a-70k-minimum-wage.html
Mary--If the Big three had invested the same time and effort into increasing the efficiency of the internal combustion engine as the did with equipping vehicles with glorified extras we might not be in the predicament where we currently find ourselves.
It appears the car makers have done all that can be done to maximize the performance of the internal combustion engine. This is exemplified by the fact that the thing has to be shut down at a stop to maximize mileage.
You live in a Country where the culture is money....what do you expect?
Jennifer--A little common "cents."
But wages have been stagnant while inflation has soared. So wages aren't the reason for the current runaway inflation (which is finally slowing), profits and greed are.
I remember reading a study a few years back that said every 10% in average wage increases only causes a 1% increase in inflation, or something similar. I don't exactly remember the numbers, but I do remember that up until a certain point, wages had very little effect on inflation. (Large, sudden jumps in average pay do show significant increase in inflation.)
Lizard--Wages haven't been stagnant they just haven't kept pace with the rate of inflation. the question remains how do we balance the two.
You MUST ask yourself this vital question: WHY do people not want to work? Answer: they were pampered during the pandemic and awakened to the fact that they ARE the economy!
In short, they now KNOW they should be getting more than the crumbs the 99% toss to the floor; they are ANGRY AND ENERGIZED!
Also--people are working! Everything is running because people are doing a ton of work in America! And they don't have the things workers in similar but even poorer countries have like job security, healthcare, retirement, paid sick days, paid vacation.
Daniel--There is a myriad of reasons why people choose not to work, I think its not so much that they don't want to, its just they want to do it from home. But your point about being pampered, it has a ring to it.
I heard one of the striking workers during an interview say "the employees of our company can't even afford to buy the car that we produce." If the striking workers want a wage scale that will allow them to afford the cars they're producing they are asking for too much. The price of a new vehicle today with insurance is beyond what people can possibly afford. We have to get car companies to down grade the products they're producing. Get rid of all the frills and extras, give me what was made during the 60s. I need transportation from point "A" to point "B" not a magic carpet ride. Steppenwolf, 1968.
That was one of those things that Henry Ford was criticized for; he paid wages high enough that his employees were able to purchase his cars.
Cathie--Smart thinking on Henry's part. He created his own customers.
We have an international market for cars. Cars today are much safer than in the 1960s. My Buick GS 400, $3,000 in 1967 offered 13 PMG, My Prius Prime Plug in, $30,000 used in 2020, offers 25 miles on a charge and 55 MPG thereafter, plus a back up camera, front looking radar, lane control, blind spot indicator, tire pressure readings, a better stereo, GPS, etc.
Gerald--The safety of a vehicle should be determined by the driver not the pricy extras added to your ride.
Gerald--If you need more safety features beyond a good set of breaks some bright lights and a loud horn you don't beyond on the road. OK, I'll throw in an air bag or two.
Donald, you might want to have brakes instead of breaks.
Gerald--Look at the self drive feature for example. How much did that little bit of technology add to the over all price of the vehicle? When the idiot behind the wheel sat there slapping this thighs and clapping his hands all the while knowing he paid through the teeth to get something he could have done by himself for free. Stupidity created by every car company that was silly enough to incorporate that feature into any of their vehicles. They could have taken that investment and given their employees a higher pay scale. Then where we be without a good reason to strike.
Donald, I agree in part. But the safety enhancements help prevent stupid mistakes, like when backing up in a parking lot, missing a car in your blind spot, or backing up over a trash can in the driveway. I am willing to pay extra for these enhancements, but have kept my 2011 Toyota. I am pleased with the new technologies car manufacturers offer. My best car is a Hyundai Ionic.
I found that to be true last time I could afford a new car. Backup cameras begone.
Anyone who ran over a child would beg to differ. I love my backup camera.
Mary--They are producing vehicles that are equipped with features that are just not needed. We need to reduce the cost down to a lever where normal people begin to frequent automobile show rooms once again.
This is only a sign of almost full employment. It is not that people don't want to work. There are fewer workers and those workers do not want to work for slave wages.
Mary--In the world of statistics when someone hasn't worked for a long enough period, they fall off the list of the unemployed and are considered invisible. Yes we are being told unemployment is a a very low level but how many invisible people does that include. The jobs that are available entail work many Americans don't want to do.
Or cannot do because they didn't get the education and/or the training.
Motorbikes, bikes, carpools. But you have a point. I would not say that no one wants to work but there are barriers to work.
steve--No one wants to work--Exaggeration for effect, I think there is a term for that. Those barriers do exist.
I don’t understand why no one wants to work; I found great purpose and fulfillment in working in healthcare that was at that time much more care than profit motive. What are the barriers to work that”Steve....” speak of? I do understand the nature of work has changed a great deal, and perhaps those barriers explain the statement?
Judith--People have gotten lazy. They want things given to them instead of working for it.
I think we have seen what happens when everything is done for you. Give your kids chores and make them work when they are old enough. Make them get a job and have some responsibility along with self worth.
The problem I see here is "make". I did give my children chores but I didn't make them do them. I paid them and they had money to spend when we went shopping. If they didn't do their chores, they didn't have money and couldn't buy anything. They are excellent workers who set goals for themselves and accomplish them. This is called discipline. They internalized the good habit.
How can you have 'self worth' if you are being paid a pittance?
I bought my first car with the gains of my Xerox stock which I bought with earnings from my paper route at age 11-13.
Bet you didn't learn that in school.
Betty--Are you crazy! That was the old way of thinking. What did that line of thought ever give us besides a great country. Good thought young lady.
BS! People want to work. They just refuse to become slaves. They're angry that the corporations make so much money off our backs, with the CEOs playing golf, sailing on yachts, touring the world, in short, living off the fruits of OUR labor, not theirs. Without us, those CEOs and corporate demigods have and are nothing. They vilify the working class just as you do, saying we're "lazy" when the opposite is true. They live a lazy life, using the majority of the money made off our labor while they give us a pittance that doesn't even pay our rent. We're ANGRY that we stare homelessness in the face every. Single. Day. Even as we work our guts out and have to ignore out families. We're ANGRY that our children are having to raise themselves because Mom and/or Dad have to work so much they are barely home. Workers aren't lazy. We're angry and we're getting angrier. Much like the French peasants did about the time of Bastille Day. And we don't even have the cake to eat.
paulahik--To me, and I'm nobody, you're spending far too much time comparing yourself to others. If you look at what others have and what you don't you'll never be happy. I'm not rich and I could care less about what the wealthy do with their time or what the possess. I'm my own person, my life is of my own making, if I become a nothing it because I wanted my life to be that way.
It's not that no one wants to work, it's that no one wants a job that pays so little it's not worth taking it. Yes inflation is bad but it's because of the monopolies that can raise prices with impunity.
Alan --When I was in my 30s I worked fulltime for Sears, and I also had two part time jobs to boot. I worked 80 a week in total. Between the three efforts I made enough to get by and raise my 3 children. Never once did I ever think I should be earning more money for the work I was doing. I had no real skills and the position I was in was of my own making and I accepted it. In life if you want to be paid more you first must be worth more. Getting an education and obtaining a skill was something that society left up to my own discretion. What I made of myself was something that was left up to me.
If a federal law were to be passed that restricts sales of oil-gasoline produced in the USA to the USA market, then the price of automotive fuel would be manageable and truly reflect local conditions. As soon as Exxon and the rest are prohibited from selling oil and gas overseas, the domestic market’s consumers will benefit.
Stan--How do we justify the decision to force big oil companies to sell their products only to designated customers. That's a kick in the butt to free enterprise. However, push comes to shove your thought has merit.
Unfortunately for all of us, the big corporations not only set the wages (when unions are so scarce) they also set prices. Just watch: despite making record profits on their overpriced cars, the big 3 will jack up the prices and blame it on the higher pay demanded by the workers.
Mike--It really doesn't matter what price they put on their vehicles in the future no one can afford them anyway.
We are a “Capital” oriented society. How else can this disparity between capital and labor be explained? Capital doesn’t exist without labor. Success of all members of a society doesn’t exist without collaboration, cooperation, participation, and agreed upon levels of fairness and equity, between capital and labor. Separately, “socialism” has value, as does capitalism, when not unfettered without bounds (Libraries, Fire/Police Departments, etc.)
From the Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2021/)
“ In 2021, the ratio of CEO-to-typical-worker compensation was 399-to-1 under the realized measure of CEO pay; that is up from 366-to-1 in 2020 and a big increase from 20-to-1 in 1965 and 59-to-1 in 1989. CEOs are even making a lot more than other very high earners (wage earners in the top 0.1%)—almost seven times as much. From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay based on realized compensation grew by 1,460%, far outstripping S&P stock market growth (1,063%) and top 0.1% earnings growth (which was 385% between 1978 and 2020, according to the latest data available). In contrast, compensation of the typical worker grew by just 18.1% from 1978 to 2021.
Papa--If we as a society are looking to find a form of equality between labor and ownership don't hold your breath. It's an out of balance relationship that is tumultuous at best. One can't exist without the other but respect between the two in out the window. We need a fix.
OooRAH
Bill--I don't really know what you mean by what you wrote but it looks cool.
While I agree with much you’ve written, $2,200 then is roughly as much as $17,000 today depending on which online calculator one uses.
Cynthia--I hear ya but the fact remains a new Mustang today will run you at least $50,000.00 That doesn't justify the difference from $17,000.
As we see from their recent statements in negotiating with their unions, the major car companies have been taken over by people whose only concern is maximum profit and maximum compensation for their executives and investors. They are unable to see that building regular, reliable cars for regular, reliable people might be a solid source of profit for them. It's almost as if the auto executives have their identities tied up with having the brightest, shiniest, highest technology, most expensive new models (the way some of our friends and neighbors once did), and "keeping up with the Jones's" - other car companies - is far more important to them than doing anything that makes sense for society, their workers, or the planet.
By current best car is a Hyundai Ionic Hybrid.
Greg--Agreed, but what happens when the cars they build don't sell?
A new Mustang today is much safer, more reliable, and will last for much longer if you take care of it. A used one for 10 grand is a better car than a new one from the 60s or 70s IMHO.
Tim--Your opinion. Try doing your own tune-up. I did as a kid and I enjoyed opening the hood and actually seeing the engine along with the ground beneath it. It was a simpler time, and a better way of life.
Today the value of $3000 is $27,577.19 after inflation.
I’ve found it useful to consult the website of the League of Women voters before I vote.
Thank you for the website . I will check it out.
I, too, listen to many of the people/groups you've mentioned. My favorites are Mehdi Hasan, which my son got me on, MeidasTouch, Young Turks, Brian Tyler Cohen, and Lincoln Project. I also have fact checked them to make sure they're worth listening to and have found them to be accurate. I might suggest you also try Beau of the Fifth. I watch him on YouTube, but I think he has a podcast, too. Beau is very down-to-earth and fact based and is very thought provoking.
Thank you. I found the Podcast and I will give Beau of the Fifth a listen.
Keith Olson: Thom Hartmann and Ralph Nader can be helpful also.
Thanks Carlos. I found their Substacks.
vote early vote early, and tell your friends to vote early. It's how we win.
Well send. That is way I have just created a website to help people understand how the government works and way their informed vote is so important. With effort we the people can take back the government.
I couldn’t agree more with each of your points. I’m just not sure this generation of CEO is about to get a clue.
Thank you Keith!🥰❤️🎶👏🏻🤗
Biden perhaps not as corrupt as Trump.
Maybe people should look at Bidens voting record.
While you have a moneyed voting system nothing will change.
Call on yourself and everyone you know. Get some real, truthful numbers and share them to people that will listen.
I have gone a step further and am creating an on-line business that helps potential voters and current voters learn about the three branches of the US government. It is nonpartisan, factual information and education. Hopefully the website will help people know who they are voting for and why their vote is so important to create positive change.
Great. If our states enacted open primaries, a majority of voters could select the top two candidates, replacing candidates nominated by a minority of voters from the far right and left.
all that stuff exists already. Just sayin.
Yes but it is hard to find. Where can you find your Senators and Representatives, and Justices all together?
Plus, verging opinions from posts (truthful, and nonpartisan).
Center for Political Awareness
Almost finished with the website. I am Boot Strapping this business and taking a little longer than I thought. The more I have learned the big it all gets.
This is a National site for now. Maybe later cover the states.
Thanks for your interest
Unfortunately most of the middle class has become ignorant about how economies work and therefore take the easiest way out, by blaming the President, rather than looking at the richest Americans and Corporations and THEIR profit margins. If we don't wake up soon and make some major adjustments our "democracy" will be lost...
Jeannie, you are right on target with the blame game. It is so easy to do that because you only have to mention one name, the president's and your friends will nod and move on in the conversation. If you say, "those greedy corporations are price-gouging, union-busting, and treating workers badly" your friend will have turned off hoping for a better conversation. This nation lives with the myth of wealth being the primary goal of everyone. Excess is glorified, and average people dream of having stuff they will never get and would probably not care for it much if they got it. How do we alter the myth to be a story of working for the common good, paying workers decent wages, making the top salaries far less than they are now, including stock income. Who will take up the challenge? Who in Congress does not understand that they need heaps of money to run a campaign these days since Citizens United? We need unions everywhere and some laws in place to protect the workers from the well-practiced tactics used by the corporations to keep unions out: lying, cheating, misinforming, threatening, firing, etc.
I get the feeling that I don't really understand what the economy is. When I see the gross overpaying of the managers, I feel like we should walk away from those jobs, and live on our own craft (then everyone would be their own business - not realistic). How could one organize a system where everyone gets what they need? Of course, if everything gets destroyed by an erratic climate then survival might be the best we can do - money might not have the value it does now.
Ruth, once again, spot on.
Yep! And tech workers, too.
I am now retired from tech and definitely agree!
Janet, as a union member myself, I think everyone should have access to a working union. It helps all of us have more trustworthy employers, a better paycheck, and colleagues working for common goals.
Most of the middle class is not only ignorant about how economies work. They are ignorant about how our government works. As you point out, they blame the President rather than looking at that co-equal branch, Congress, and the courts. You'd think President Biden is a dictator who has unilateral power and control over our government. With respect to labor, you'd probably be hard pressed to find a person who knows of the existence of the Labor Relations Board and the National Labor Relations Act and the role it has play over the past few decades in bringing labor to the place it is now in here in the U.S. Of course, when did you last read about the NLRB in one of the major newspapers? Did I hear you say not since 1977? Yes, that would about right. Of course, Republican influence on all of these institutions of our government has been malignant. Wish I knew what we could do about it all. Seems as though the Democrats have kind of lost labor and that cannot end well.
We treat POTUS as if he/she were King. Always in the news, in charge of the economy, involved with union matters, etc. Wierd.
..I love it whne people blame high petrol prices on the president whne they don't read the news. several months ago the Saudis announced they were going to cut back production (which they did) and all of sudden prices at the pump started going up again. The other factor in this was the petrol company themselves which raked in obscene record profits over hte past two years but last year saw fit to gouge gouge us at the pump.
The same for grocery prices that also shot up last year and in some cases have not come down.
...but it's always seen as the President's fault.
I agree POTUS does not run the gasoline marketplace. When the pandemic hit, oil companies were losing money. I am ok with their profits. Oil is fungible and its market is inelastic. Higher gasoline prices will reduce consumption and reduce carbon emissions. Some oil companies are investing in renewables. Folks can save gas money by not exceeding the speed limit and buying gas efficient vehicles, including plug in hybrids. My Hyundai Ionic gets more than 60 PMG. Cities designers can comingle residential are commercial areas so folks do not have to drive to go to work or buy groceries. Plus walking will help reduce one's weight and lower the incidence of diabetes mellitus, saving on the cost of drugs.
So spot on! The American people have been subjected to lower wages benefits and across the board prosperity since 1970’s. I remember the benefits of Unions to families! Pensions, Blue Cross, a living wage! A family could live with dignity. Home ownership, cars, vacations, affordable education...and much more! Corporations always return to the cruelty of Management Ownership of employees.
After WW2 the armed forces came home to make a stand globally. They demanded a life of progress and opportunities for all!! We have slid into this situation by complacency and the oppression of Vulture Capitalism..
Now we have an Authoritarian regime masquerading as a Political Party! Aka a Crime Syndicate...The Trump Cartel who have harnessed the deep despair of Americans who don’t see them, and their ultimate goal? This is a result of the Devastating effects of poor wages, unaffordable education and lack of access to healthcare
UNIONS provide a contract for services and a return to economic prosperity!
We MUST support our workers!
And worse, the MAGAs want to make sure it stays that way by eliminating the DOE and implementing right-wing religious curriculum policies, that eliminate the existing liberal education policies in grades 1 - 12, and even in institutions of higher learning, they claim "liberals, Marxists, and Communists" have imposed. That's been coming since the '80s with the rise of "charter schools," which I've >always< considered a thinly veiled dodge aimed at imposing religious indoctrination on, specifically, the youngest of students, at the earliest age they can get possibly away with - at the moment. The lie is, the lie has always been, that crime will go away, and the kids won't need to know about government or economics if only they learn to work hard, worship vapors, and "be nice" - which was always a buzz word meaning "know their place!" Sometimes, it's called "having good manners." That's as opposed to "uppity" - like union members!
...the fact they scream about liberal "indoctrination" when that is what they actually plan to do by selectively whitewashing history along with denying science, and fact clearly illustrates the extent of their hypocrisy
Exactly! 👍 They always demonize "the other" for what they intend to do. That way they believe they can justify their claim - when "the other" understandably complains - that they're abolishing the indoctrination that has taken place for decades, thus begging the question - >knowing< the voters seldom notice.
The objective is a capitalist paradise. Here's an example of such a paradise, that having all the undereducated the MAGA rulers so love will likely lead to:
- DUBAI IS A PARODY OF THE 21ST CENTURY:
https://youtu.be/tJuqe6sre2I?si=X_0oHgVf269twhIn
I have no doubt it makes the MAGA bosses swoon!
Interesting video. Expatriates are white, immigrants are brown. Indian's choose to work as slaves in Dubai.
Sounds more like Indians are duped into working as slaves. They come with the promise of good paying jobs, then their passports are confiscated upon arrival and they have no choice other than to work jobs at whatever wage the employer deigns to give them, where they're paid only occasionally, while being held responsible for the debt levied on them for the passage from India to Dubai, that was supposed to be paid for >by the employer< in the first place, and then must suffer increasing interest on the "loans" they received for said passage costs, that they can't pay because their wage is too low and unreliably paid. Is that you're saying Indians choose?
Maybe, but social media could educate potential emigrants.
I don't think people fully understand the nature of poverty in India. Why would you think the Indians who get duped even have access to the tech needed to be informed by social media? Think "community outhouses."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27775327
And many of them will vote for trump, just as they did Reagan, and he'll finish destroying the middle class.
Republicans use social issues to convince followers to vote against their economic self-interest.
Gerald, I liked that you wrote what you did here. I do not like the content of your writing. Too bad there are so many sheeple in this country.
Hi Cathie- here is a more explicit statement: Some republicans focus on social issues such as abortion, gay rights, and books in school libraries instead of matters that are more important, at least to me, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a practical way, eliminating access to military grade weapons (except for a member of a well regulated militia), more equitable tax policy and enforcement, the war in Ukraine, how best to mitigate the high cost of child care with tax policy, etc.
Great job growth and increasing union power threatening higher wages commensurate with supply & demand in a tight labor market . . . OOPS! Time for an interest rate hike!
As usual, great going, Dr. Reich, since America needs the union turnaround once again, just like it did after World War II. Only a strong middle class can ensure widespread prosperity and a healthy democracy. As Hitler and his ilk showed in the 30's and Trump and his are showing us today, fascists and authoritarians can only feed off mass discontent. Come on everyone, get unionized!
I fully agree, Anthony. I was a union member for 35 years and a union officer for 15 of those years with the United Steelworkers of America and i fully support unions. I have been retired for 18 years now and the union got us the pension that i get every month now. I hope the UAW gets their raise and better benefits for the workers at the BIG 3. They deserve it after years of concessions to the automakers.
The UAW and the Teamsters assured my summer jobs in a car factory and driving a truck paid enough to finance 1/3 of my cost of college and medical school.
When Walter Reuther visited our medical school class at the University of Michigan in 1965, I knew who he was and met him!
This ain’t your Daddy’s UAW. They went corporate & gaslighting like Democrats- “historic strike” (at 3 non-strategic plants)
I don't understand your comment Indie. But, my father may have been in the UAW before WWII. I was in the UAW when I worked my summer job during college at the Willow Run Fischer Body Plant. I was a spotwelder. My job is probably automated today, based on the new technology I found on my tour of the BMW plant in Munich two years ago.
That was very generous of the UAW and the Teamsters for doing that for you, Our union did some very good things too, especially when the company i worked for closed down, we got a severance payout i never dreamed we would get, and got us a great retirement bonus too, but we were always kinda behind the UAW in strength. I had 3 uncles and 2 first cousins that were GM assembly plant employees and UAW members and their pay and benefits were ahead of what we got from the Steelworkers union. The UAW and Teamsters have always been strong unions.. The United Steelworkers seemed to be stronger in the large plants, Our company was a much smaller corporation, so our smaller membership at our stainless steel tubing plant was somewhat behind the larger corporations.
Thank you very much, Mr. Reich, being a union member and their accountant officer for 15 years and the union's total dedication to Democratic party and Democracy greatly strengthened my Democratic views. The union NEVER endorsed any Republican politician in my 35 years of membership. They openly condemned Republicans, and so did I.
From the outside looking in, I am unable to understand why the workers are never given the option of equity as retention, and incentives. It is a simple way to reward and engage, workers.
Automobile industry is dying with only a handful of automakers globally that will survive. Unfortunately, Ford or General Motors, do not have a high probability of survival today without municipal, state or federal benefits.
It very much looks like crony capitalism wants to extract as much as it can, in this dying industry before it is bankrupt.
If anyone wanted to truly save the automobile industry, it would be apparent to give equity, fair benefits to the workers, and partner with them to save the industry.
Unions seek union representation on corporate boards of directors. UAW leader Douglas Fraser was nominated to Chrysler's board in 1980 by Lee Iacocca after his critical role in lobbying for legislation that provided the federally guaranteed loans that let Chrysler avert bankruptcy. He served on the board for four years, and is remembered for both protecting employee interests as well as extracting needed concessions from them. In his 2008 obituary, the New York Times wrote that in addition to a deal at Chrysler that cut workers' wages by $3 an hour, he also agreed to deals at GM and Ford Motor that froze wages and cost-of-living raises temporarily.
When GM and Chrysler were in bankruptcy, unions tried and failed to gain seats on their boards, but in 2014, Joe Ashton, UAW was added by GM.
In Germany, one of the biggest capitalist companies in the world, workers at big corporations elect 50% of the board. At medium-sized companies with up to 2,000 employees, workers elect a third of the board.
We have ESOPs, an employee benefit plan that enables employees to own part or all of the company they work for. ESOPs are most commonly used to facilitate succession planning, allowing a company owner to sell his or her. shares and transition flexibly out of the business, The United Steelworkers and the United Food & Commercial Workers, International Association of Machinists and United Auto Workers have used ESOPs to save jobs. Employee stock ownership plans for union members have become popular because they create union solidarity and closer identification with the concerns and goals of employees rather than employers.
“
Hear, hear--income inequality can stagnate economies and give the rich far too much power. I am not sure about anyone else, but I certainly don't want to labor under an oligarchy. The Republicans and perhaps a few Democrats don't really care--if on no one is fighting for us, we must fight for ourselves.
Absolutely! Unions will help us do that!
Indeed, which is why they always come after the Unions.
Capitalism is akin to a team sport without a referee. Even the father of modern Capitalism Adam Smith recognised the value of imposing societal norms upon the workings of Capitalism via regulatory laws. Ethical standards have declined in relation to both employee treatment and consumer protection and constructing a tax system that penalises share buybacks to boost executive bonuses would be a useful start.
I disagree. Share buybacks are not a problem. We should tax capital gains as ordinary income.
Fear of communism was what allowed unions to grow. When that fear subsided, unions were blamed for everything (Ronald Reagan). The stock market is so computerized the little guy doesn't stand a chance (whatever happened to the transaction tax?). Unions can be a pain in the butt, but they may be our best hope for a middle class.
Ronald Reagan is responsible for that so-called 'trickle down economics' which is another reason we are in this mess now. I still fear communism and fascism but I want the Unions to help build a better middle class. It is time America distribute the wealth of this country the way it should be.
Given that the stakes are democracy vs Fascism, unless a union supports Democrats, exclusively, they don't deserve any support.
I can't agree but yeah, we got big problems with many rank and file.
E.G. Many unions opposed HRC. https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/labor/307250-union-erosion-crumbled-hillary-clintons-blue-wall/
Teamsters (then a Republican union) vs FASH, Federated Association of Steel Haulers vs. USW. Not just politics. Shoot up war.
I think you have this bass ackward, Gerald. It was anti-communism that crushed unions.
In my experience "little guys" can make money in the stock market, because it is computerized. Trades are free.
Proud 30-year (now lifetime) member of Writers Guild of America, West, here. Striking again, and picketing with younger members who deserve the same earning capacity that I was fortunate enough to experience. Ours is truly an existential strike - like The Ukrainians, if we lose we cease to exist; if the adversary loses, they go back to their private jets and mega yachts.
how can we help ?
Thank you! We DO need a TV series.
What truly is Tragic is the large percentage of American workers who are NOT represented by Unions and work for even lower wages than Union Workers! Labor continues to be exploited in this country. The first 20k of all wages should be tax free. The next 20k of earnings should be at 5%. Capital Gain Tax rates should be at 40% not 20%. Irrevocable Trusts should be denied for Estate Tax planning. ESTATE Taxes should be charged on all Estates over 6 million dollars not 12 million dollars. This would personally cause me grave tax consequences but it would result in a greater good being accomplished and reward the very people that produce goods and services we all benefit from. We need to move from tax greed mentality of the wealthy to tax motivation for the productive !
1. We also have a tax collection problem.
2. IMHO certain groups, Saudi/OPEC/Russia have been undermining our economy by fixing energy prices and burning up the planet. Sue the v=bastatds. Recoup losses due to price gouging. California has the right idea! https://www.npr.org/2023/09/16/1199974919/california-oil-lawsuit-climate-change?fbclid=IwAR39HNUmpsdIXP3cfXIAcGvucH8pynEmA1BpYxUjUuEWxae4Bu-Xo_ldBtQ
No mention of fixing prices, price gouging. IMHO the state has lost trillions due to price fixing and price gouging by oil companies......
Please look into the Singular Movement here in Substack. Union activism is an important component to revitalizing the middle class but Re-engineering our tax, benefit and healthcare payment systems is the most effective way the federal government can promote the American Dream.
I agree with Prof. Reich that the worker unrest going on right now is good for America. There has been so much lying and misinforming going on in the past decades that it is a relief to hear people openly talking about the value of unions and how courageous it is for the unions to strike when the corporations just somehow can't pay workers reasonable wages in relation to the salaries the guys (nearly always men) at the top pay themselves. The fact that many restaurant workers are still paid around $2.16 an hour plus tips is outrageous. They are mostly not unionized. Flight attendants' time clock does not start until the doors of the plane are closed and the plane is about to take off. Whoever heard of such a ridiculous plan. The attendants have so much work to do when the plane is loading and unloading and not to be paid for that! Unions can be problematic, like the "police unions" which only support the whole when the whole looks like and goes along with the leadership. However, most unions do a good job for workers. Companies benefit too because turnover is usually lower and contracts can let the corporation know what costs will be for workers the duration of the contract, providing some stability. Maybe we need a TV series about union organizers who go around helping workers to unionize. Maybe it would raise workers and unions even further in the eyes of the public.
I'm 68 years old and I grew up hearing my blue collar father say, "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Economic inequality is my third most important political concern surpassed only by #1 climate change and #2 preserving what we have left in this country of our functioning democratic principles and institutions in the wake of Citizens United and the capturing of the Supreme Court by Republican reactionaries. While climate eclipses politics and economic justice in the long run, the urgency of regaining Democratic governance in the interest of once again reestablishing democratic governance is a short-term matter of existential importance.
Exactly right. Of course, they are intertwined which makes a 1 to n ranking difficult, and perhaps superfluous.
Agreed. It should be obvious that repealing Taft-Hartley would also provide a gigantic boost to union formation; replacing Sinema and Manchin and the GQP House loons with progressives would do the trick. Perhaps Biden should then announce new legislation to reform labor-management relations to be more like the less antagonistic bargaining systems in Germany or Japan, which would be a lasting achievement. (I do worry, though, that it would mean losing political points with a Gen Z more excited for aggressive labor activism than in previous generations, a point I made to Clyde Prestowitz when he criticized the strikes.)
Unfortunately, unions are up for grabs. Democrats do not have a lock on unions. Trump is telliing the strikers that all cars will be built in China because the big three is making only electric cars.
"The Trump campaign has produced a radio ad that will begin running on Tuesday in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, trying to cast Mr. Trump as aligned with autoworkers. The same Trump adviser said the ad targeted union workers and men, and will air on sports and rock-themed stations."
“All they’ve ever wanted is to compete fairly worldwide and get their fair share of the American dream,” the narrator says in the ad. “Donald Trump calls them great Americans and has always had their backs.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/us/politics/trump-detroit-debate.html
sounds like a smart thing to do. So Biden should be running the ads that tell them how TFG and crew have screwed them over and wil screw them again and he has their backs.
That's just as nuts. Biden is the most pro labor president since LBJ.
If trump cared about unions, he wouldn't be giving billionaires and corporations huge tax breaks.
Of course. Mostly about hate for "the other."
tfg likes tax breaks only they benefit HIM.
Yeah, that’s true. The most likely outcome I see is the strike will drag on into November or December, but the UAW leadership will endorse Biden four or so weeks from now.
Many in the membership voted for Trump twice, are anti-immigrant, and some have that collective racist subconscious. They remember jobs lost to China, Japan, S. Korea, and most especially the more than one million Mexicans working in the 3,000+ maquiladora plants.
Nevermind that Biden is bringing new car jobs and Trump was an utter failure.
How much of this is about class ? Much I think.
Mr. Solomon, I agree with most of what you have written in today’s discussion thread, and you may be right about Biden being the “most pro labor president since LBJ”. However, I question just how pro labor he is. Three of the facts that lead me to be skeptical about his pro labor bonafides are: 1. Why keep Jerome Powell as head of the Fed. when most of its rate hikes have hurt labor? 2. Why not get rid of deJoy as head of the USPS, when he is trying to privatize the postal service, which would result in the loss of good paying jobs with benefits? 3. Why doesn’t he use the bully pulpit to tout how many good paying, skilled jobs would be created by aggressively promoting a “green new deal” economy?
no no no no
There are problems in getting union rank and file to vote D at rates you would expect.
Williamson has zero experience and no concept whatsoever of what Presidency job entails. Would you ask some one to rebuild your Harley Davidson who hasn't even ridden one ?
Jarrod: Please I beg you -- if you have any influence with anybody affiliated with the UAW -- do NOT I repeat NOT encourage that individual to encourage Shawn Fain to back Marianne Williamson. But having said that -- if you don't respond well to people pressuring you -- forget everything I just said. 🥺😰
Jarrod: Definitely - as a mixed-feelings-for/against-Biden voter myself - I empathize with your hesitancy and feel strongly you are entitled to your opinion.
But even Bernie knows what's at stake this election. I'm sure he has been advising the Biden administration re: what platform issues will resonate with the base that got Biden where he is now and will help him retain his presidency -- that base being the Progressives who supported Biden despite their disappointment.
And who need to support him now even if they are disappointed in certain ways with the present administration. This time we stand on the edge of a precipice. One misstep . . .
Another gigantic boost to union formation would be repeal of "Right to Work" laws that exist in many states. It's tough to establish and run a union in these states. My state, Virginia, has such a law (passed years ago by the Dixiecrats). Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers Union represents workers at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, VA. Many shipyard worker "free riders" refuse to join or pay dues under right to work rules. This makes it more difficult for the union to do its job representing the workers versus the company.
Fortunately, Taft-Hartley repeal would enable such state laws to be repealed as well, it and creating an American Ghent system of UI administration would be the silver bullet to the labor decline issue
Reich wrote something quite important "But something far more basic is going on here. As I travel around the country, I hear from average working people an anger and bitterness I haven't heard for decades".
And one outlet for these feelings is through union acitivity we're seeing
But TFG and the rightwing has been able to channel this anger against anything that restricts their power.
Their narrative against the "deep state", aka the Federal government , continues. Listen to some of this Sen Hawley questioning of Energy Sec Granholm and read the comments on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LetXp2DJhiA
He is whipping up anger against Federal employees and the Feds generally. Some of the public is angry that civil servants have been able to still have a middle class life, and even a pension. Their anger is being misdirected away from wealthy elites who have made their own lives worse and denied them pensions in many cases. I think the Dems have to do a better job in directing the public's economic injustice anger, and why a Dem President is someone on their side.
BTW, if Hawley turns your stomach he has a good challenger in Lucas Kunce who is a HUGH antitrust advocate. https://lucaskunce.com/meet-lucas-kunce/
Hawley was financially backed by the Missouri asbestos king Humphreys (who has also bought many House and Senate seats in the Missouri legislature) to get him elected to MO attorney general, and then into the Senate. Humphreys now regrets he put Hawley in the Senate.
If our Democratic candidates in Missouri could get even crumbs from some of the well-heeled democrats on the east and west coasts, not to mention national orgs, we would immediately stop the Republican supermajority in Missouri which would help nationally by beating back some of the extremism. https://bluemissouri.org/ We only need 4 seats to flip the Missouri House and Colin Lovett lost the 100th house district by only 1%. Hint. https://votelovett.com/about/
CEO/Executive pay raise rates should be equal to worker pay raises. 1:1 is fair, IMO. If the company can afford to give the CEO a 40% raise, then the company can afford to give workers a 40% raise too.
When the CEO says a 40% pay increase for himself AND workers would break the company, the obvious reply from reporters should be "then why do you get a 40% pay increase? Why not 25-30% pay increase for you AND workers? Why not be fair and SHARE the profits made possible by the workers?"
If the "average CEO" gets $20M a year, that works out to about $8,500.00 per hour.
We need to keep repeating that number every time folks talk about "companies can't afford that". How many workers make $85/hour, or $8.50/hour? Does the company really need the employee making eight thousand five hundred dollars per hour? Exactly who's being greedy in this scenario?
Basic maths,and refusing to see it. One person earns $50 million and gets a 40% pay rise.The rise costs $20 million.That would be a large company.Said large company employs 100,000 people on say $50K per annum.The rise would cost 100,000 X 20,000 a nice figure of $2 billion,said company goes bust.
I don't know why people deny it.A large number divided by a large number is a small number.A small number multiplied by a large number is a very large number. One billion X 2 is a huge 100% increase in wages,or costs,or profit,or revenue etc etc.
Absent union representation, in most states, workers work "at will" and have no (0) rights. Most American workers have no (0) rights.
The current UAW contract pits groups of workers against each other. Also retirees against eav=c other. "Amid the recession and in subsequent contracts, the UAW agreed to numerous concessions for retirees including the elimination of inflation protection pay for retirees that provided lump sum payments at the end of the year to workers or widows based on inflation rates, elimination of healthcare for retirees and the takeaway of pensions for many workers, as they were replaced with 401(k)s for autoworkers in agreements in the wake of the 2008 recession."
Amazing knowledge. Thank you Daniel
Thank you Robert for your continued labor positive point of view. I’m sure my father is smiling from his great beyond at your great sage words as they remind me so much of how he used to analyze and think you’re keeping the economic truths alive and any thinking American who is labor aware should to be grateful for the economic and political truth you tirelessly expose! May labor, and our labor positive president win in the end and...BIG!!!
Higher pay and labor costs don't stop exploitation of labor. The Wealthy merely just raise prices on goods and services and the victory is short lived and only benefits briefly those represented by the unions. The Tax Code is the only way where all labor both Union and Non-union can be properly rewarded for the goods and services that benefit all Americans. It is time we take action against non-working unproductive non tax paying Trust fund recipients. Labor needs rewarded in this country NOT the unproductive wealthy live like parasites off the hard work of labor.
This isn't true at all. We have 1) historical evidence of the benefit of unions 2) comparative evidence between countries and also between unionized and non unionized. Unions improve living standards across the board. The absence of unions is a race to the bottom.
Unions fail to represent most working people. We need to broaden to support all labor not just Union labor. Increases in minimum wages and increased labor contracts fail to protect labor from abuse as wealthy just mark up goods and services and labors net gain is negated. We need to exempt the first 20k of earnings from income tax. The second 20k of earnings should be taxed at only 5%. People who make over 500k a year should be taxed at 50%. Capital Gains need taxed at 40% not 20%. Irrevocable Trust transfers that result in no estate tax should be prohibited. Estate Tax Exemptions for estate tax should be 5 million instead of 13 million. It is time our tax code encourages and rewards workers that make goods and services that benefit all Americans. Trust Fund recipients that don't work and provide goods and services should pay 50% income tax on all Trust fund income. It is time we reward work rather than wealth with our tax code! The Tax code allows all labor to benefit BOTH Union and NonUnion.
We need to do BOTH.
We once taxed the rich and enabled workers to be middle class by supporting unions.
We can do this again, though the government has been very captured by business interests--so it will be like starting over, unfortunately.
There is A LOT of data on the benefits to workers of being in unions. Overwhelming amounts of evidence.
It's not a perfect solution, it simply provides a baseline for wider prosperity, and a recovery of a middle class.
And of course people see it in their own lives. Unions improve everything about working.